The Butterwalk

THE BUTTERWALK

One of a row of merchants' houses, now functioning as a shop and museum with accommodation above, located on the north side of Duke Street in Dartmouth. The row dates from 1635 and 1640, with various minor later alterations and a major renovation programme in the 1950s following severe bomb blast damage in 1943. The architects were David Nye and Partners of Westminster, London, and the builders were PW Wilkins and Sons Ltd of Torquay.

The building employs mixed construction. Unlike the other Butterwalk houses, this one is mostly timber-framed but does include some stone rubble walling at ground-floor level. The front displays ornate timber-framing with slate-hung upper floors, and the walk is carried on granite piers. There are no stacks, and the roof is slate.

This is the centre unit of the original row and is smaller than its contemporary neighbours. It is built end onto the street, one room wide and one room deep with no stack. The first-floor room is now part of Dartmouth Museum shared with No.6, though a blocked doorway in the left wall suggests that the upper floors were originally connected to No.10. Early documents mention a passage through the middle of the Butterwalk wide enough for a carriage, leading to a shared back yard with a crane, brewhouse and other communal facilities.

The building rises 3 storeys with an attic and has a one-window range. The ornate jettied timber-framed front forms part of the unified frontage of Nos.6–12 (even), comprising the Dartmouth Butterwalk. The first floor oversails the Butterwalk and is supported on a carved bressummer resting on an arcade of granite piers with moulded capitals. The blocks beneath are carved with geometric and heraldic motifs. A recessed shop front dates to the mid-20th century. The first floor displays exposed timber-framing with a tripartite sash window at centre (12-pane sash), flanked by largely original moulded small-panel framing. The faces of the original timbers are carved with strapwork patterns and guilloche. The end posts on the party walls are carved as pairs of Ionic pilasters on pedestals under carved brackets supporting the second-floor jetty, which has a carved fascia. Above this, the walls are slate-hung. The second floor has a central 12-pane sash window. The attic is jettied beneath the gable, with a bressummer carved in an egg-and-dart pattern. The gable contains a horizontal-sliding 12-pane sash. The rear elevation is gabled, with plastered timber-frame construction and some original 17th-century oak mullioned windows.

The interior is well-preserved but few original features are exposed. A moulded timber frame survives to a blocked doorway through to No.10, and at ground-floor level there is a moulded axial beam. The stone crosswall at ground-floor level has no recognisable function, though it may have been associated with strengthening masonry inserted into the row in 1657. Other 17th-century features are likely hidden. The upper floors and roof were not inspected.

The Butterwalk forms part of one of the finest rows of merchants' houses dating from the first half of the 17th century anywhere in England. It was built on reclaimed land as part of the scheme that created the New Quay. The western half was leased to William Gurney in 1628, and the eastern half to Mark Hawkings. Both began to build, but in 1635 Gurney sold his part to Hawkings, who completed the row by 1640 at a cost of nearly £2500. The row originally continued one house further east; the Butterwalk arcade originally comprised 13 granite piers and now comprises 11. When originally built, the row backed directly onto the river.